Figures de l’alliance franco-russe : tableaux de marines autour de 1900

Abstract

Representations of the Franco-Russian Alliance : Paintings of seascapes around 1900. The Franco-Russian Alliance, the outcome of an old tradition of exchanges, led to several official visits from 1891 on. As it was clearly linked with the maritime history, the alliance was often representated by French and Russian navy painters such as Chigot, Couturier, Bogoliubov, Gtritsenko and Tkatchenko who, being often trained seamen, depicted the main visits they witnessed : that of the Mediterranean Sea Russian squadron in Toulon in 1893, Nicolas II’s visit in 1896 and Félix Faure's visit to Cronstadt in 1897. Whether they caught precise moments of the encounter or set forth a more general vision, these representations testify to a time when people believed in the promises of the alliance : peace, prosperity and power. Some works of art were bought or ordered by the State to become official presents, such as the paintings offered in 1896 by Russia to the towns and institutions that had welcomed its seamen in 1893. Although they are seldom on show, these works are original in that they are in keeping with a Russian fad which swept through France at the end of the 19th century.